You know your daddy is a youth minister when you have your own baby-sized ear protection for Sunday night youth worship! We had our Fall kick-off of The X (our high school Sunday night program) and it was awesome! The band was incredible and Sean's preaching about John. When I walked into our youth area a couple of hours before it started, and I heard the band rehearsing, I knew we were going to be in trouble with little Gia... it was SUPER loud. Ok for me, but not for little baby ears. Especially since we have hearing loss in our family (more on that in a sec). So I was trying to figure out where I could take her that the music wouldn't be so loud, but one of our awesome youth sponsors had already thought of that! Dave got Gia and her little bestie, Ella these baby headphones for ear protection! How thoughtful! We are so blessed to be a part of a church family that not only loves my husband but also values his family. The youth ministry is also blessed with some incredible youth sponsors who invest so much love and time into these teens. So great! The quality of this pic is bad b/c its a cell phone picture, and we took it in pitch black with just the stage lights. Hopefully one of these weeks I will get a picture of Gia and her bestie in their matching ear gear! They were so cuh-yooooot!

So on to the hearing loss. We've known for a long time that Sean had some hearing loss. His mom was wearing hearing aids in her 30's, and Sean's grandma was deaf later in life. So we knew it was a genetic thing. Unfortunately, we don't have insurance and couldn't afford to have him go to an audiologist to get checked out. He has noticed it getting a lot worse in this past year, so we were just kind of unsure what to do about it. Lo and behold, another one of our great youth sponsors is in school for audiology and her mom is already an audiologist. She told Sean they would do a hearing screen for him! What a blessing and answer to prayer! So last week, he went and had his hearing checked which confirmed what we had suspected: he's hard of hearing- and its permanent, genetic and will get worse. But it was good for Sean to know that he's not just going crazy and that he really is losing his hearing. So the next step is to get hearing aids. They're pricey, of course (4-5 G's) so we'll be saving for them for a while, but its just good to have a place to start from in this process. And speaking of hearing aids, the technology has advanced SO MUCH in recent years... did you know you can sync your hearing aids with your Bluetooth? Crazy, right?!

So, all that to say several things: we love our church. God has brought awesome people into our lives. He always provides. we're thankful for that. its important to protect your baby's hearing. and to look cute while doing so. :)